PHILOSOPHERS from Latvia

Top 5

The following people are considered by Pantheon to be the most legendary Latvian Philosophers of all time. This list of famous Latvian Philosophers is sorted by HPI (Historical Popularity Index), a metric that aggregates information on a biography’s online popularity.

1. Isaiah Berlin (1909 - 1997)

With an HPI of 65.81, Isaiah Berlin is the most famous Latvian Philosopher.  His biography has been translated into 59 different languages on wikipedia.

Sir Isaiah Berlin (24 May/6 June 1909 – 5 November 1997) was a Russian-British social and political theorist, philosopher, and historian of ideas. Although he became increasingly averse to writing for publication, his improvised lectures and talks were sometimes recorded and transcribed, and many of his spoken words were converted into published essays and books, both by himself and by others, especially by his principal editor from 1974, Henry Hardy. Born in Riga (now the capital of Latvia, then a part of the Russian Empire) in 1909, he moved to Petrograd, Russia, at the age of six, where he witnessed the revolutions of 1917. In 1921, his family moved to the UK, and he was educated at St Paul's School, London, and Corpus Christi College, Oxford. In 1932, at the age of twenty-three, Berlin was elected to a prize fellowship at All Souls College, Oxford. In addition to his own output, he translated works by Ivan Turgenev from Russian into English, and during World War II, worked for the British Diplomatic Service. From 1957 to 1967, he was Chichele Professor of Social and Political Theory at the University of Oxford. He was president of the Aristotelian Society from 1963 to 1964. In 1966, he played a role in creating Wolfson College, Oxford, and became its founding President. Berlin was appointed a CBE in 1946, knighted in 1957, and appointed to the Order of Merit in 1971. He was President of the British Academy from 1974 to 1978. He also received the 1979 Jerusalem Prize for his lifelong defence of civil liberties, and on 25 November 1994, he received the honorary degree of Doctor of Laws at the University of Toronto, for which occasion he prepared a "short credo" (as he called it in a letter to a friend), now known as "A Message to the Twenty-First Century", to be read on his behalf at the ceremony. An annual Isaiah Berlin Lecture is held at the Hampstead Synagogue, at Wolfson College, Oxford, at the British Academy, and in Riga. Berlin's work on liberal theory and on value pluralism, as well as his opposition to Marxism and communism, has had a lasting influence.

2. Nicolai Hartmann (1882 - 1950)

With an HPI of 64.30, Nicolai Hartmann is the 2nd most famous Latvian Philosopher.  His biography has been translated into 31 different languages.

Paul Nicolai Hartmann (German: [ˈhaʁtman]; 20 February 1882 – 9 October 1950) was a Baltic German philosopher. He is regarded as a key representative of critical realism and as one of the most important twentieth-century metaphysicians.

3. Abraham Isaac Kook (1865 - 1935)

With an HPI of 59.09, Abraham Isaac Kook is the 3rd most famous Latvian Philosopher.  His biography has been translated into 24 different languages.

Abraham Isaac Kook (Hebrew: אַבְרָהָם יִצְחָק הַכֹּהֵן קוּק; 7 September 1865 – 1 September 1935), known as HaRav Kook, and also known by the Hebrew-language acronym Hara'ayah (הראי״ה‎), was an Orthodox rabbi, and the first Ashkenazi Chief Rabbi of British Mandatory Palestine. He is considered to be one of the fathers of religious Zionism and is known for founding the Mercaz HaRav Yeshiva.

4. Yeshayahu Leibowitz (1903 - 1994)

With an HPI of 55.30, Yeshayahu Leibowitz is the 4th most famous Latvian Philosopher.  His biography has been translated into 17 different languages.

Yeshayahu Leibowitz (Hebrew: ישעיהו ליבוביץ‎; 29 January 1903 – 18 August 1994) was an Israeli Orthodox Jewish public intellectual and polymath. He was a professor of biochemistry, organic chemistry, and neurophysiology at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, as well as a prolific writer on Jewish thought and western philosophy. He was known for his outspoken views on ethics, religion, and politics. Leibowitz cautioned that the state of Israel and Zionism had become more sacred than Jewish humanist values and went on to describe Israeli conduct in the occupied Palestinian territories as "Judeo-Nazi" in nature while warning of the dehumanizing effect of the occupation on the victims and the oppressors.

5. Nikolay Lossky (1870 - 1965)

With an HPI of 52.97, Nikolay Lossky is the 5th most famous Latvian Philosopher.  His biography has been translated into 23 different languages.

Nikolay Onufriyevich Lossky (; 6 December [O.S. 24 November] 1870 – 24 January 1965), also known as N. O. Lossky, was a Russian philosopher, representative of Russian idealism, intuitionist epistemology, personalism, libertarianism, ethics and axiology (value theory). He gave his philosophical system the name intuitive-personalism. Born in Latvia, he spent his working life in St. Petersburg, New York, and Paris. He was the father of the influential Christian theologian Vladimir Lossky.